DRUG FORUMS SPUR CITY INTO ACTION

After hearing nationally known speakers deliver anti-drug messages to
Billings over the past eight days, nearly 50 local people gathered

Thursday to talk about how this community can fight substance
abuse.

The discussion is scheduled to continue at 9 a.m. on Feb. 8 at
the same place, the Deaconess Health Conference Center.

Representatives from organizations ranging from Kiwanis, Junior League
and Retired Senior Volunteer Program to a district judge, mental
health advocates and chemical dependency treatment experts spent about
an hour and a half talking about community needs at a meeting of the
Billings Healthier Community Coalition. It was one of the largest
turnouts ever for a meeting of this broad-based coalition, which has
run totally on volunteer power from Deaconess and St. Vincent
hospitals, children's organizations, the City-County Health Department
and other nonprofit groups.

Meetings last week featuring Barry McCaffrey, director of the White
House Office of Drug Control Policy, and school assemblies Tuesday with anti-drug crusader Milton Creagh, along with media coverage surrounding those events have heightened community awareness, Ernie Randolfi, a Montana State University associate professor, told the meeting at Deaconess Health Conference Center.

Randolfi and his colleague Carl Hanson helped the coalition procure a
drug prevention grant of about $850,000, which is just starting to be
directed into several community programs. Hanson and Randolfi said there is much yet to do and this seems to be a good time to move ahead.

"We felt there was so much positive energy in our community, we could
reach out and plan for the future," Randolfi said.

"If we're going to be successful, this has to be a coordinated,
comprehensive approach," Hanson added.

Coalition President Jim Duncan of Deaconess Billings Clinic Foundation
agreed. "It's a strike-while-the-iron's-hot sort of deal," he said.

Several speakers at the meeting stressed the importance of
organizations communicating and collaborating. They shared information
on upcoming public meetings that will address efforts to prevent young
people from getting involved with alcohol, tobacco and other drugs.

At 9 a.m. Thursday in Room 216 of Lincoln Education Center, a School
District 2 application for a Schools in the 21st Century grant will be
discussed. If the application is approved, the district would receive
funds for drug prevention projects focused on middle school students
and their parents, according to Mary Maheras, who works with after school program and with America's Promise.

From 7 to 9 p.m. Thursday at Deaconess Health Conference Center, the
Governor's Advisory Council on Tobacco Use Prevention will hold a
public meeting on a draft plan for a comprehensive, statewide approach
to reducing the use of tobacco products. To read the entire text of
the plan, check the Internet at www.dphhs.state.mt.us (Click on
"What's Hot") or call the Department of Public Health and Human
Services at (406) 444-5508.